Rig Really Ready for a Run, Trucker Shows Patrol

A trucker hauling lettuce became so upset Friday when a California Highway Patrol officer told him his big rig needed repairs that he assaulted the officer, police said, and then got in his truck and led police on a 20-mile chase on the Ventura Freeway during rush hour.

The trucker was finally captured in Encino, when he parked in a slow lane and tried to flee on foot, authorities said.

Dale Eugene Jones was arrested on suspicion of battery on a police officer and failure to yield, CHP Sgt. L.G. Heckert said. Jones, 28, was being held in the Ventura County Jail.

40-Minute Pursuit

The chase began about 4:30 p.m. at Thousand Oaks and lasted 40 minutes, using the fast lanes except when there was too much traffic. Then the center divider was pressed into service.

Speeds ranged from 35 m.p.h. to 70 m.p.h.

It began when the truck driver, who had picked up a load of lettuce in Oxnard, got into an argument with a CHP officer at the Conejo grade truck scale, Heckert said.

“The scale officer advised that the truck was in an unsafe condition, needed repair and couldn’t leave the scales until it was fixed,” Heckert added.

“When he tried to detain him there, he (the truck driver) physically assaulted the officer,” then got into his truck and drove eastbound on the Ventura Freeway.

Two Los Angeles police cars and a helicopter joined two CHP units as the truck reached Winnetka Avenue, but the driver showed no signs of giving up the chase, said CHP Sgt. Albert Lorenzen.

Running for It

But as he neared the Amestoy Avenue pedestrian crossing, the truck veered from the fast lane into a slow lane and stopped, Lorenzen said.

“He just put on the brake and ran,” Lorenzen said.

The driver climbed a fence and ran into a residential neighborhood. He was followed by a CHP officer and a Los Angeles police officer who caught him, Lorenzen said.

The truck, registered to Franks and Son Inc. in Big Cabin, Okla., was driven off the freeway by a CHP officer and later impounded.

The scale officer suffered a cut on his head in the altercation, but did not require hospitalization, police said.